Sistine Chapel Choir

It performs at papal functions in the Sistine Chapel and in any other church in Rome where the Pope is officiating, including St. Peter's Basilica.

The members of the boys choir (Pueri Cantores) are not paid when performing at papal functions, but receive a free education at their own school in Rome, known as the Schola Puerorum.

Since the late 20th century, in addition to its papal duties, the choir has undertaken international tours, participated in radio and television broadcasts, and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.

Papal patronage of music, and especially singing, dates to the 4th century when, according to 9th-century written accounts, Pope Sylvester I constituted company of singers, under the name of schola cantorum.

The purpose of the Gregorian schola was to teach both singing techniques and the existing plainsong repertory, which at the time was passed down by oral tradition.

Gregory XI brought the papal court back to Rome in 1377 bringing with him his choir which consisted largely of French singers and amalgamated it with what was left of the old schola cantorum.

They also complained that Magnasco held back the salaries of several singers without justification and prohibited others from even entering the Sistine Chapel.

[4] Julius III was also keen to reduce the size of the choir which had been bloated by the patronage system and contained many members who were singers in name only.

However, Julius III defied his own reforms when in January 1555, he appointed his favourite composer, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, to the choir without an audition.

A complex nine-part choral work, the Allegri Miserere was considered one of the choir's most famous pieces and was performed during the Tenebrae service on the Wednesday and Friday of every Holy Week.

The score was closely guarded, and its publication was forbidden by the choir on pain of excommunication, although Emperor Leopold I, King John V of Portugal, and the composer Giovanni Battista Martini were known to have authorized copies.

Following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the renewed interest in Italian history and culture fueled by the writers of the Romantic Era, foreign travelers returned to Rome, and hearing a performance by the choir, especially during Holy Week, was considered on important stop on their tour.

[6] The composer and bass singer, Giuseppe Baini, was admitted to the choir in 1795 and unanimously elected as its director in 1818, a position he held until his death in 1844.

According to music historian Richard Boursy, the book enhanced not only the reputation of Palestrina but also that of Baini and the choir itself, adding to the mystique it still held in the first half of the 19th century.

However, four of its members had sung in a Te Deum on 9 February 1849 in thanksgiving for the Republican victory—Alessandro Montecchiani, Giovanni Poli, Alessandro Chiari and Domenico Mustafà.

[10][11] During the 19th century, the ever-increasing popularity of opera made it difficult for the choir to attract highly skilled singers who could make more money on the operatic stage.

In a group photograph of the choir taken in 1898 (see upper-left), there were six castrati choristers left, apart from Mustafa who had retired from singing—Domenico Salvatori (1855–1909), Alessandro Moreschi (1858–1922), Giovanni Cesari (1843–1904), Vincenzo Sebastianelli (1851–1919), Gustavo Pesci (1833–1913), and Giuseppe Ritarossi (1841–1902).

At Perosi's urging, a Papal decree of 3 February 1902 by Pope Leo XIII stipulated that henceforth castrati would no longer be accepted into the choir.

In 1997, at the instigation of Piero Marini, the master of pontifical ceremonies, Bartolucci was replaced as director of the choir with Giuseppe Liberto.

[17]In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI, who had been Bartolucci's sole supporter on the Curia when he was dismissed in 1997,[17] appointed Massimo Palombella to replace Liberto as the choir's musical director.

[22] More controversial was the choir's performance at the Met Gala in May 2018 where many of the celebrity guests dressed in costumes that according to The National Catholic Register were "deemed by many to be a sacrilegious mockery of the Church.

[25][26] In a motu proprio issued by Pope Francis on 19 January 2019, the Sistine Chapel Choir was placed under the administration of the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations.